


The Right Thing Happens to the Happy Man

by ThisIsLightful



Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Gunmar Wins, Gunmar Wins AU, Introspection, Merlin is a Seer, Multiple Timelines, Sad, What Could Have Been, angst without comfort, poem, sometimes, sorta - Freeform, the title is from a poem
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-21 18:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14920715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisIsLightful/pseuds/ThisIsLightful
Summary: Merlin said that his gift of foresight is not entirely accurate.This is because he sees all timelines.The multiverse is like a series of strings, impossible to unravel. These are some of the timelines close to that of the Trollhunters show universe. It is this that decides what Merlin is to do. Who he is to choose. Why he twists a boy into something irreversible.





	1. The Self-Destructive Shake the Common Wall

**Author's Note:**

> Title and poem used in story based off of The Right Thing, by Theodore Roethke:
> 
> Let others probe the mystery if they can.  
> Time-harried prisoners of Shall and Will—  
> The right thing happens to the happy man.
> 
> The bird flies out, the bird flies back again;  
> The hill becomes the valley, and is still;  
> Let others delve that mystery if they can.
> 
> God bless the roots!—Body and soul are one!  
> The small become the great, the great the small;  
> The right thing happens to the happy man.
> 
> Child of the dark, he can out leap the sun,  
> His being single, and that being all:  
> The right thing happens to the happy man.
> 
> Or he sits still, a solid figure when  
> The self-destructive shake the common wall;  
> Takes to himself what mystery he can,
> 
> And, praising change as the slow night comes on,  
> Wills what he would, surrendering his will  
> Till mystery is no more: No more he can.  
> The right thing happens to the happy man.

     Merlin couldn't say when he'd started to see the future.  _Divine the truest of truths,_ Morgana had laughed, even as she lied to his face and sowed chaos where each step of her foot met ground. He was the only resistance that could stop her. The immovable object for her unstoppable force. But he'd peered into his very self and found something... Lacking. He could not defeat her. Not as she siphoned energy from the land, from the blood of each person she killed, from the army of blasted  _Gum-Gums_ that slaughtered indiscriminately. 

_"Merlin," she had smiled. Beatifically. Beautifully. Curiously. He was taken in by the guise of the daughter he could never have. "How did you manage to help those poor girls?"_

_"Nasty business, that. Some people just shouldn't be parents." She shot him an impatient look and he laughed; her stubbornness and her need to **know** had been what made him take her in. A fool mistake. "I switched them, in a way. One family would love their daughter regardless of form, the other would only accept someone who would grow to be a true beauty. One child was sickly and her family couldn't afford to care for her, and the other was rich."_

_"Won't they know something is wrong when they grow up and don't look like their families?"_

_"Ah, well, that's where the magic comes in! Now..."_

_And she stole babes from cradles not a week later, and twisted troll whelps until they weren't trolls, not anymore. Until they weren't children, but the monsters they had feared._

But it didn't matter when it had started, what matters is what he does with it now. He has to seal Morgana away, but even he cannot keep up the spell for an eternity? Who will clean up her mess in the mean time? Who will help him fell the embodiment of discord? It's not a job for just anyone. 

     He closed his eyes. Reached out. In this moment of quiet, he would rule. He would  **win**.

 

      _A boy._

     Jim Lake Jr. had always known about the things that go  _bump_ in the night. He knew about the green things with long, spindly arms. About the rock-people that fought viciously under the light of the moon. He knew that they'd killed his mother.

      _Bular._ He would destroy the one that thought his mother's life was worthless. That the only good in Jim's world was nothing but an afterthought in a newspaper.  _An accident._ They'd told him.  _Must have fallen asleep at the wheel._ But seven year old Jim Lake knew that his mother wouldn't have come home if she had even the slightest suspicion that she'd fall asleep driving. He saw the odd indents in the road that reminded him of a scene from a Bigfoot documentary. He stayed up each night, unable to fall asleep.  _Why. Why? WHY?_

A trashcan knocked over. 

     "Stupid raccoons." He grabbed a bat, unsure what he was going to do with it but wanting to do something. Toby's grandma had taken him in, and while he was thankful, it was stifling. 

     Shifting. Metal clanging.

     The boy frowns. Peers through the glass on the front door. Freezes.

      _"Waka-chaka."_ hisses one at the other.  _Monsters._ He hears thudding, the ground shaking. Barking in another language. The green things leave.

     If monsters are real... His grip on the bat tightens. Are there large monsters? There's only one way to find out.

     He opens the door.

      _He trains. He hides. He watches. He learns. Years later, when he picks up an amulet, he already knows what to do. He's been fighting for as long as he can remember. When the time comes, he takes down Bular. He grows into a strong, confident young man. Determined. Gunmar is slain by his hand. He helps Merlin defeat Morgana. There are losses, but in a war there always are. The once-boy dies, quietly in comparison to his loud life. Still fighting. Struggling to get up. His own blood choking him. Merlin's magic too depleted to save him. Modern medicine too slow to arrive. When he dies, it is the first time Jim Lake Jr. has known peace since he was seven years old._

_In a detached sort of way, Merlin mourns. So young. A childhood wasted on vengeance. A slow sort of pride, too. The boy fought valiantly and saved billions of lives. But one victory does not a pattern make, and so Merlin peers into another possibility._


	2. The Small Become the Great

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Destiny calls, Jim. You can't escape it.

     Jim was having a normal day. He cooked for his friends and mother, he chatted with his kindly history professor, and he completely failed at asking Claire on a date. All in a day's work, really.

     Which was why he felt that karma let this happen.

     Screaming.

     Crying.

     Toby was swatted away, and Jim couldn't find him in the rubble.  _"Jimbo! If you ever need me, I got your back, man! So relax!"_ Toby didn't have his back right now and he really wasn't feeling relaxed. Another scream.  _Darci. Darci oh no Darci Toby loves you please don't--_ Her body was limp, one of those... Creatures ate her arm.  _Please no._

     Jim couldn't stand by. He simply couldn't. He stood between Steve and Eli before Steve had gotten over his daddy issues. He helped old people cross streets. He put Band-Aids over boo-boos for children. He cleaned and laundered and cooked so that his mom could get some sleep. At school, it was an open secret that, regardless of your relationship with Jim Lake Jr., if you needed help, he'd help you. If you need help, go to Jim.

     Eli was crying. Darci was dead. Toby was...  _Blood on the crumbled wall. A monstrous, green hand. "TOBES!"_ Toby was MIA. The armored creature was fighting the scary looking blue guy, but that wasn't enough. That wouldn't protect his friends. Jim lunged out of the way of a stone hand. He grabbed something large and heavy and sharp, a broken pipe. He held it. He stood his ground. He grabbed classmates and shoved them behind him. He drove the pipe into an approaching bad-thing's eye. It punched him off of it, but it stilled moments after, shattering.

     "C'mon!" Jim shoved another piece of pipe at Steve. He loaded Eli's arms with rocks. Students that were nameless to him but no longer faceless watched him, a slow sort of hope dawning on them. "Pick up something to use as a weapon and try to find a shelter!"

     Steve's face turned serious and grim, and he drew himself to his fullest height, "I know a place. It's a bit out of the way, though."

     "That's fine. I'll cover you." Jim smiled, tears in his eyes.  _Was his mother alright? Would he get to tell her how much he loved her again? How thankful he was for her? Did Toby die? Did Toby know how much Jim loved him? Was Claire alright? Useless questions to be asked later._ "Just go."

     Protests erupted, because Jim had always been good and kind and it wouldn't be  _fair_ if he died. All's fair in war. 

     "I'll stay with him." It was Eli. Small, scrawny Eli that calmly said this. "I can get to higher places and throw things at them to keep them distracted. I can fit in places they can't reach. I'm the best one to stay behind." Eli turned to Steve with a grin, before he faced the crowd, "We will not go gentle into the good night! Rage, rage against the dying of the light!" Steve choked back laughter and tears, and everyone who passed the duo wisped hands across their shoulders and murmured solemn thanks, for they all knew what was to happen.

      _The group of students managed to make it to the "safe house"._

_Suffice to say, Eli and Jim died. Eli had wedged himself in a corner to escape a particularly persistent Gumm-Gumm, but a thin sword fit through the crack and impaled him. Jim was squashed when he pushed the Trollhunter away from a blow that would have been fatal._

_It's curious, really, that it was the death of one boy that had Stricklander turning sides; one boy died and he ripped Gumm-Gumms apart with his bare hands. One boy died and he screamed and killed and clawed his way through the writing mass of misery to aid the Trollhunter in felling Gunmar._

_Claire Nunez was not strong, but she took track and was smart, and so she had whisked away person after person under the cover Jim and Eli had provided. A limb lost, but life intact._

_Toby Domzalski had died, but only after he had crawled out of the rubble, cradled his friend's dead body, and killed several Gumm-Gumms in vengeance._

_And Jim's mother knew that he had loved her, and she was hurt all the more for it. She survived the battle, but the war was only just beginning for her: the war of a lost child._

 

_Merlin was impressed. Such conviction! Such care! And yet, did the boy have **strength**? There were many who bore watching. Draal's physical prowress, young Tobias's LOYALTY, that Claire was spectacular as well, and the Eli kid had potential. Perhaps, if Sricklander was converted to humanity's side early, he would be a viable option. What made Jim so special, if anything? _

 

Jim was getting to school early. His first period teacher would blow a gasket if he was late again!

     Which was why he stumbled on an odd sight: two rock-monsters trying to kill each other, each studiously avoiding the first rays of light.

     "Uhh…" Neither monster seemed to acknowledge him. If a question mark could take human form, it would be Jim. 

     "KANJIGAR!" roared the un-armored monster. "GIVE ME THE AMULET AND YOUR DEATH WILL BE SWIFT!" Which was really just not a nice thing. A lose-lose situation, his mom would say. This sentence might have endeared Jim to the armored monster a bit more. This sentence might have led to Jim looking for something heavy, because the bridge was a veritable dumping ground for people passing through and the drivers above. This was why he picked up an old, burnt, bent, frying pan. Why he chucked it at the one-eyed jerk. 

     Why Bular was so surprised that he stopped fighting to turn. Why Kanjigar was able to push Bular into the sun. Why Kanjigar lived. Why another Trollhunter was not chosen.

     An early arrival and a single sentence, and fate went spiraling.

     This was why Jim was still late for class.

     

_It was only many decades after Jim died that the Janus order had managed to put together the portal to the Darklands. But they did not have the Amulet. The portal was found and destroyed, Gunmar remained in the Darklands, and Morganna remained imprisoned._

 

_Draal was Trollhunter. Driven stupid with grief, he managed to get killed. The amulet taken. Gunmar and his army laid siege to Arcadia. A boy fresh from the kitchen carried an alarming amount of knives. A mother took a frying pan. One Tobias grabbed his grandmother's gun. The Nunez family crowded around the baby and clutched bats and golf clubs. They died fighting for their families. Fighting for what's right. Gunmar wins._

 

_Gunmar wins._

 

 

_Gunmar_

_**~~W~~**_

_~~**I** ~~ _

_~~**N** ~~ _

_~~**S** ~~ _

_**And with Gunmar's victory, Morganna gains strength. Breaks free. Slits Merlin's throat in his forced slumber. He wins. He wins. Too many times. And so that means that she does. That people die. A murderer wins. She slays all the trolls when the humans die. Alone on a barren Earth she laughs and laughs and** _

_**L** _

_**A** _

_**U** _

_**G** _

_**H** _

_**S** _

_**Because all of existence is a jOKE and she looks at Merlin and smiles and says, "You should have seen this coming, old man." Before killing him in a thousand different ways and.** _

_**Killing Morganna takes precedence over Gunmar, he sees that now. He has to revise his strategy, search for something else.** _

_Jim Lake, what horrors can you withstand?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem Eli references is "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. Eli is shown to be a fluent theater nerd, so I figured it wouldn't be a stretch for him to know a lot of poetry too.  
> I hope you like this chapter! I'm sorry if it's a bit too... Dark. I'm trying not to let it get TOO bad but an old friend of mine recently died and I'm never in a good headspace so. Yeah.  
> If you have any ideas for what you think should happen next, tell me! I have some ideas, but nothing really solid. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


End file.
